In family-friendly Hungary, the family supplement is enough for 1 piece of the cheapest baby food per day, in Germany for 16 pieces per day

A few days ago we had to buy canned baby food in Berlin. We went to the nearest dm, if the child is hungry, the only good solution is the nearest solution. Two things stood out. One is that the German canned baby foods in most cases do not have exactly the same flavor as the ones in Hungary, despite the fact that they are the same brand (we looked for flavors familiar to the child among dm’s own brand babylove canned foods).

The other is that the cheapest German baby foods are cheaper than the cheapest Hungarian ones. More precisely, at that time it seemed that they cost the same amount, the goods start at a little over 1 euro, and I remembered the Hungarian ones as being a little over 400 forints. Considering the difference between German and Hungarian salaries and family allowances, the price advantage in Germany still seemed significant.

Then today the subjective impressions were replaced by the even more shocking reality: after some searching, it turned out that the cheapest Hungarian baby formula of the same brand is almost twice as expensive as the cheapest German baby formula. It’s babylove’s baby carrots (Frühkarotte). What costs 50 euro cents in German DMs – according to the website, the price has not increased since December – costs HUF 369 in Hungarian DMs. In other words, the same canned baby puree is 85 percent more expensive in Hungarian stores (exchanged at the daily exchange rate) than in German stores.

The matter is even more serious if we look at where, for example, money goes to buy baby food. Anyone who has a child in the so-called family-friendly Hungary has been receiving HUF 12,200 family allowance for a decade and a half – its value has halved since the last increase in 2008 – while Kindergeld in Germany is 250 euros per child.

So, the Hungarian family allowance is enough for 33 pieces of the cheapest Hungarian baby food, i.e. you could buy roughly one a day. On the other hand, 500 pieces from the German Kindergeld. The difference between the net minimum wages is not that big, there it is not fifteen times, but more than six times. And of course you can add to this that we also have a family discount (HUF 10,000 per month for one child). But on the one hand, this does not automatically apply to everyone, on the other hand, even if we were to take it into account, it would only be enough for 60 pieces of baby food per month, i.e. two a day.

Anyway, after quite a bit of internet searching, it seems that this babylove baby food is currently the cheapest German baby food, and almost the cheapest Hungarian: I found pumpkin and apple vanilla at our Auchan, both for HUF 349 and in a larger, 190 gram package. But even that costs HUF 230 for 125 grams – that’s the package of babylove – so it’s still 15 percent more expensive than the German one.